Arlington Early Voting is Saturday

By Bill Dries

Early voting in Arlington municipal elections is Saturday, Sept. 7, at Arlington United Methodist Church, 6145 Quintard St.

Early voters will head to the polls Saturday, Sept. 7, at Arlington United Methodist Church to cast votes in Arlington municipal elections.

(Daily News File/Lance Murphey)

The single day of early voting, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is in a set of three races for aldermen: incumbent Oscar L. Brooks Sr. versus Brian “Elder” Groves, incumbent Harry McKee versus Joshua Fox, and incumbent Brian Thompson versus Larry M. Harmon Jr.

In suburban elections, turnout is usually heavier at early voting sites in the towns and cities than at the Shelby County Election Commission early voting site at 157 Poplar Ave.

The Downtown early voting site is also open Saturday for the same hours and every day except Sundays through Sept. 14 for early voters in the Arlington and Lakeland municipal elections.

The early voting period opened at the Downtown site Aug. 30. But there were no early voting turnout numbers for the two sets of municipal elections posted on the election commission’s website.

Election day is Sept. 19 in Arlington and Lakeland.

Lakeland voters are deciding a three-way race for mayor among incumbent Scott Carmichael, former Mayor Jim Bomprezzi and Shelby County Commissioner Wyatt Bunker.

Also on the ballot are five candidates running for two seats on the town’s board of commissioners. Each voter can vote for two of the contenders. The candidates with the top two vote totals win the positions.

The single day of early voting in Lakeland is Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at theRefuge church, 9817 Huff ‘n’ Puff Road.

The municipal elections are the first in a series of 11 elections to be held in Shelby County in the next three months.

The next date on the election calendar is the Sept. 27 opening of early voting for the special election primaries in State House District 91, with primary election day on Oct. 8.

The Election Commission this week certified nine candidates in the race and disqualified two others that made the August filing deadline. The commission ruled that Mary Taylor Wright and Gregory Stokes had ineligible signatures on their qualifying petitions for the office.

The field of eight in the Democratic primary is Raumesh A. Akbari, Dwight DeBerry, Doris DeBerry-Bradshaw, Joshua R. Forbes, Kemba Ford, Terica Lamb, Clifford Lewis and Kermit Moore. The winner advances to the Nov. 21 special general election ballot.

Jim Tomasik, who filed his qualifying petition as a Libertarian, will appear as an independent candidate in the Nov. 21 special general election, to which he advances without a primary.

No candidates filed in the Republican primary for the State House District.

Akbari, Ford and Tomasik do not live in District 91. They have until election day to establish residency in the district.